ABSTRACT
Consider these claims: Conspiracy theories serve as a means to respond to people’s need for uniqueness (Lantian et al. 2017). Political extremism predicts belief in conspiracy theories (van Prooijen et al. 2015). When attending to visual scenes, conspiracy theorists are prone to ‘tunnel vision’, focusing their attention on details as opposed to the ‘global picture’ (van Elk 2015). These are examples of broad conclusions paraphrased from recent social psychological publications exploring conspiracy theories. How confident can one be in such claims? What justifies them? This chapter aims to answer these questions.
